1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to the field of electronic commerce, and in particular to a third generation business-to-business-to-consumer (B2B2C) content management and delivery infrastructure for the fragmented financial services industry.
More specifically, the system and method of the invention serve to create an interface between existing providers of financial services such as banking and brokerage services and children and teenagers (hereinafter referred to collectively as “children”). The interface includes a simple, “kid-friendly” bank statement that provides a fun and educational way of accessing the financial services while educating children and teenagers about money and personal finance, encouraging savings, and providing a convenient way of providing gifts of money or securities, and that may include additional educational features, or links to additional educational features, such as a dialog box through which answers to specific questions concerning finance or financial services may be obtained. The “kid-friendly interface” thus serves as an intermediary between one or more financial service providers and the child, or between the one or more financial services providers and an adult who wishes to make a gift to the child, and in addition may be adapted to serve as a portal through which the child may access a variety of child-related services and vendors, and through which vendors and service providers having products of interest to children may offer targeted information, educational, and promotional materials.
2. Description of Related Art
At present, youth accounts provided by financial services companies are aimed at adult use, i.e., they hold a child's money, but do not provide the child with the ability or incentive to access the account. This lack of financial knowledge on the part of young people and, perhaps more importantly, the incentive to learn more about finance and savings is a serious problem in the United States and other developed countries.
One of the most difficult concepts for a child to grasp is the concept that money is not an inexhaustible resource which magically appears in a parent's wallet or purse, or upon presentation of a credit or debit card, whenever a purchase needs to be made. In today's relatively affluent society, appreciation for the value of work and savings is diminishing, even while the concept of money becomes ever more abstract. The result is a generation less prepared than any previous generation to face the inevitable ups and downs of the economy, or to accumulate wealth in a way that benefits themselves and society as a whole.
Children who use computers to access the Internet and whose families make purchases on-line are even more likely to view money as intangible because of the manner in which such purchases are completed. Upon deciding to the purchase the product, the parent simply types in a number or, in some cases, simply indicates a desire to charge an account whose number has previously been stored, and a few days later the desired product appears at the child's doorstep. Even if the child understands that there is some relationship between the purchase and the fact that his or her parents leave for work in the morning, the child will seldom grasp the exact nature of the relationship.
While materials for teaching children about money and encouraging savings certainly exist, both on and off the Internet, for every call to financial responsibility, there are 10,000 calls to purchase a product or service. Finance, as an educational topic, cannot compete with the attractions of contemporary marketing. Currently available educational materials, such as the “Board Game For Teaching Fundamental Aspects Of Personal Finance, Investing And Accounting” described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,032,957, have a relatively limited appeal in comparison with the multimedia attractions of the various child-oriented “.com” websites. A website that educated children about personal finance and that could compete with other child-oriented websites would clearly be of benefit not only to children visiting the website, but also to society in general.
Of course it is marketing and not education that pays for the Internet, and few sophisticated websites, and in particular those including multimedia, can be maintained without marketing, which would seem to be contradictory in a website that sought to encourage savings. Nevertheless, any website that seeks to provide an educational service, including those that seek to teach fundamentals of finance, must at the same time find a way to attract revenue. To be successful, any website must in general offer benefits both to users of the site and to underwriters of the website, i.e., the website must educate in a way that attracts users to the site, and that in turn attracts those who wish to sell to those users. In the case of a website that seeks to educate children about personal finance by providing financial services to children, an additional source of revenue is essential since children are unlikely to have accounts as large as those owned by adults.
Systems and methods for providing financial services over the Internet are of course well-known. Numerous websites are set up to provide banking and/or brokerage services to adults, including one proposed site described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,953,710, which enables a parent to manage a custodial credit card account on behalf of a child. Among the activities that can be carried out on these sites are the viewing of account statements and the gathering of financial information, as well as purchases and sale of securities, transfers of funds between accounts, and payment of bills. However, none of websites are structured in such a way that would make them suitable for providing financial services to children in a commercially viable manner.
The task of attracting children to a website is especially difficult because of the great variation between what attracts children of different ages. A thirteen-year-old will not have the same interests as an eight-year-old or a four-year-old. Yet if a financial services website is to be successful, it must be able to hold the interest of all age groups, from the youngest to those ready to open accounts on adult financial services websites.
The lack of websites directed to providing financial services to children leaves an enormous gap between those who seek to market to children and those who wish to teach children about savings and earnings. Piggy banks, allowances, and passbook savings accounts which can hardly compete with the contrary message provided by most child-oriented “.com” sites. Lectures by parents and teachers are no substitute for hands-on experience, and yet because children cannot enter into legally binding contracts, and because the revenues generated by individual child accounts are likely to be small in comparison with the cost to an individual financial services provider of managing the site, there is currently little immediate incentive for financial services providers to provide a site which assists parents and others in teaching children about money and finance by enabling the child to actively participate in managing a real bank or brokerage account.
While it would be impractical for an individual financial services provider to set up a website directed towards children, it is just as impractical to set-up a new bank or brokerage for that purpose. As a result, any website that seeks to provide financial services to children would need to be able utilize existing financial services providers, and preferably multiple financial services providers, including banks, brokerage houses, mutual fund providers, and even insurance companies. Convenient and practical ways must be found not only to offer financial services to children in an attractive, educational, and commercially viable manner, but also to serve as an intermediary between child-customers and existing financial services providers such as banks and brokerage houses.
In summary, there is a need for an Internet-based system of encouraging savings and of teaching children about money and personal finance that can compete with other child-oriented Internet sites, and that can meet the following requirements:
(i) the system must offer an interface that provides information necessary to manage an account, and preferably information on personal finance and financial services in general, and yet that also incorporates the technological bells and whistles to compete with conventional non-financial service providers and encourage use of the system,
(ii) the system must provide a revenue stream that is not dependent on the value of financial services provided, and
(iii) the system must include the ability to interface not only with children but also with existing financial services providers.
The present invention is intended to meet these requirements by using a novel account statement that serves as an education tool, as a way of attracting users, as a medium through which marketers may promote products and services, and as an intermediary between the users and existing financial services providers.